The Chinese companies comprise China Hyway, Chinese Development Bank, Quantum, QTriad, and Sinosure. It is hoped that work on the project could start before the end of the year.

The San Jerónimo Santa Teresa Master Plan is designed to create a bi-national master-planned city straddling the Mexico US border to relieve the congestion and chaotic development which has taken place in the neighbouring cities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. A key element of the project is the construction of a new railway running along the western side of the development and connecting Union Pacific's new $US 400m freight terminal in Santa Teresa with the Mexican rail network.

The governor of the Mexican state of Nayarit, Mr Roberto Sandoval Castañeda, accompanied Duarta on the visit to Beijing as it is proposed to extend the railway south to a planned deepwater port in Nayarit.